8,000 refugees in Gambia

The
Gambia is playing host to about 8,000 refugees fleeing instability in some
African countries, particularly West Africa, statistics from the United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Banjul has indicated.

The
UN agency said the bulk of these people who fled their countries due to war,
persecution and violence are mainly from neighboring Southern Senegal region of
Casamance residing in the Fonis while the rest are from DR Congo, Cote
D’Ivoire, Togo, Somalia, and Darfur, who reside in the urban and peri-urban
areas of The Gambia.

Speaking
at the commemoration of World Refugee Day (WRD) yesterday, Sekou K. Saho, head
of UNHCR Banjul office, said there exists a strong bond of partnership and
support between UNHCR and other development partners in the drive to making the
refugees in The Gambia feel at home.

The
2017 WRD was celebrated in The Gambia in form of a march past from Bundung
Police Station to Buffer Zone in Tallinding where government officials and
other stakeholders delivered keynote statements to mark the day, on the theme
‘We stand together #WithRefugees’.

Mr
Saho said the day is meant to honour the resilience and courage of more than 65
million people who have been forced to flee war, persecution and violence.

“It’s
also a moment to recognise those communities and people around the world who
receive refugees and the internally displaced in their midst, offering them a
safe haven, and welcoming them in their schools, their workplaces and their
societies,” he said.

Interior
Minister Mai Ahmed Fatty said being a refugee is not the choice of any person.

“It
is not your choice that you are in The Gambia,” he told the refugee community
in the country. “We understand the
circumstances that led to your flights from your countries seeking refuge here
some years ago.”

He
noted that hundreds of Gambians have also left the country to foreign lands
because the condition in the country then was inhospitable and people’s freedom
was curtailed.

Yusufa
J. Gomez, executive director of Gambia Food and Nutrition Association (GAFNA),
said GAFNA has been in partnership with UNHCR for more than a decade and has
since been implementing projects geared towards the welfare of refugees
residing in 81 villages in the Foni area of the West Coast Region and in the
Greater Banjul Area.

He
emphasized that the focus of this year’s theme of World Refugee Day reminds
both the refugees and hosts in The Gambia that both UNHCR and governments the
world over including host communities are together with refugees in assisting
them to live dignified and decent lives
wherever they exist.

However,
he said, it is evident that the majority of refugees are faced with enormous
challenges ranging from livelihood, health, social protection and so forth
after departing their countries of origin in emergency situations.

It
is on this backdrop that GAFNA, as a national development NGO, has built
partnership with UNHCR to provide humanitarian assistance to refugees in order
to reduce their vulnerability and improve their socio-economic status as they
continue to live in The Gambia.

“The
support provided is also geared towards redressing some of the stress placed on
the available social amenities in the host communities that is partly due to
the influx of these refugees into these communities,” GAFNA executive director
said.